Lockout Ransomware

Posted: May 23, 2017

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Threat Level:	8/10
Infected PCs:	9

First Seen:	May 23, 2017
Last Seen:	October 1, 2019
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

The Lockout Ransomware is a file-locking Trojan that uses encryption to prevent documents and other data from opening. Its attacks can occur alongside other symptoms, such as pop-ups, changes to your wallpaper or extension edits. While malware experts continue analyzing the possibility of free decryption, you can protect your content with backups and the rest of your computer with anti-malware products for removing the Lockout Ransomware automatically.

The Worst Kind of Lockout Your Computer can See

The decline in screen-locking Trojans isn't occurring in a vacuum, but, instead, is symptomatic of the increasing profitability and ease of development for competing Trojans that conduct stronger attacks of the same general type. Malware experts note this trend in play with file-encrypting threats, including variations on Hidden Tear, new versions of Troldesh, and potential 'lone wolf' projects like the Lockout Ransomware particularly. Although its full capabilities are still in determination, the last of these Trojans shows similar capacity for blocking the victim's files indefinitely.

While malware experts can't confirm its claims, the Lockout Ransomware warns its victims that it uses the RSA-based encryption to lock their local data, which, if true, could render free decryption solutions unlikely. Types of content at risk for being encoded particularly and made illegible temporarily include text documents, spreadsheets, slideshows, archives, pictures like BMP or JPG, and the output of the Microsoft Office software. No symptoms may display during the Lockout Ransomware's initial file-scanning and encoding routine, stopping the user from detecting the security breach until most of the files on their PCs are made unusable.

The '.Lockout' extension uses a simple, text-based means of transferring its ransoming demands afterward, which it delivers via dropped Notepad content. These messages give the victims their identifying numbers, a three-day time limit on any ransom payments, and offer one, free demonstrative decryption to prove that the threat actor can restore your media. The author is withholding further details on paying until the users negotiate directly, depriving them of details like a median asking price.

Converting a Data Lockout into a Breakout

Although little is verifiable about the immediate future of the Lockout Ransomware project, its messages are highly similar to the social engineering components present in families like the Shade Ransomware and Troldesh. Decryption with the assistance of appropriate security industry experts may or may not be possible, but is less likely for RSA-based Trojans. However, malware analysts always can recommend using comprehensive backup strategies for blocking the Lockout Ransomware, and other file-encrypting threats, from doing any permanent damage.

Threat actors can include Trojan installers in e-mail attachments, embed them in the drive-by-download scripts of a corrupted website, or, more rarely, even install them after getting direct network access from compromising a password. Disable scripts from running in your browser or macros from running in text documents, and use anti-malware products to detect non-consensual download exploits. Removing the Lockout Ransomware during an install attempt is ideal both for your PC's safety and for preserving the contents of your hard drive.

The question of how much money and what formats of currency the Lockout Ransomware's authors are interested in remains unanswered. PC users not protecting their files, their passwords, or their overall computer systems only can hope that the cost isn't too high.

Technical Details

File System Modifications

Tutorials: If you wish to learn how to remove malware components manually, you can read the tutorials on how to find malware, kill unwanted processes, remove malicious DLLs and delete other harmful files. Always be sure to back up your PC before making any changes.

The following files were created in the system:

file.exe

File name: file.exe
Size: 89.13 MB (89138056 bytes)
MD5: e3137275d9ef204209418b297d10e10c
Detection count: 5
File type: Executable File
Mime Type: unknown/exe
Group: Malware file